Culturefix Does Dinner and a Show

June 27, 2011

Dinner theater can be a delicate undertaking, especially when that dinner is in a bar and the show is actually performance art. Culturefix, the bar-slash-gallery on the Lower East Side, mashes its monthly supper club with an art exhibit this time around, called “LOOK: A retrospective of the future,” taking place tomorrow.

On the walls will be photography by Anna Beeke; on the table will be 15-20 courses, beginning with caviar and ending with salted chocolate, with such kooky concoctions as oysters with blood orange and cava, corn and lobster chili, and plum fried beef in between. As the dishes keep on coming, members of the burlesque-inspired troupe BabySkinGlove will perform pieces inspired by art movements throughout history, from German Expressionism to Dadaism.

“It isn’t so much that dinner goes particularly well with art,” says Culturefix co-owner Cole Schaffer. “Rather, when you put it all together, it shows that food, and even service, can be as much of an art form as a picture hanging on a white wall.”

The meal is meant to parody the New York art elite in its excess and miscellany. Each dish, prepared by chefs Ari Stern and Jay Ralston, will consist of roughly one bite and comprise little more than three ingredients. The space has been transformed into an old lady’s over-the-top living room for the occasion. The dinner is one night only, but the art exhibition runs through July 10. Tickets are $99, with spots for just 16 intrepid diners.